When an individual is conditionally released from their Court ordered confinement, the individual is permitted to return to society subject to a probationary period. For example, an individual released from prison on parole is referred to as a “parolee”; an individual released from jail on probation is referred to as a “probationer”; and an individual released from Court supervision on drug related crimes is referred to as a “drug court participant.” During this probationary period, the individual will be assigned a probation officer or other personnel and required to comply with an approved schedule. The schedule includes at least a treatment plan, approved or permitted locations where the individual may live, and approved or permitted times and locations where the individual may go and/or visit during the day or evening.
Under the treatment plan, the individual, depending upon the circumstances surrounding the reasons for their incarceration or illegal activities, will be required to comply with certain treatments that are specifically designed to assist the individual in overcoming their problems. For example, if the individual is a drug or alcohol addict, the individual may be required to regularly attend alcoholics anonymous, narcotics anonymous sessions, and/or drug and alcohol education classes; if the individual is a sex offender or has another type of problem, the individual may be required to attend individual counseling, group therapy sessions, or comply with any other type of applicable treatment. If the individual complies with their schedule and treatment plan, it is intended and hoped that the schedule deterred the individual from re-committing any of their illegal activities and the treatment plan was successful in rehabilitating or continuing to rehabilitate the individual.
In the past, the only means available to confirm the individual's compliance with the treatment plan was to receive from the individual, at prearranged times, a land line telephone call from designated locations by the individual. If the individual complied, the individual was in compliance. If the individual did not comply, the individual was not in compliance and possibly subject to disciplinary action such as revoking the individual's release and returning the individual back to their Court ordered confinement. The problem, however, is that unless the probation officer conducts an actual visit of the individual during the day or evening, the probation officer would have no real knowledge of the whereabouts or activities of the individual during these time periods. This is particularly troublesome as the probation officer would not be aware if the individual was visiting certain acquaintances or frequenting certain places or area which may allow the individual the opportunity to re-commit any of the illegal activities for which they are serving time. The probation officer also would not be aware of such movement to circumvent such activities from occurring.
Since then, devices have been designed to track such individuals during these types of conditional release programs. Examples of such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,100,806 and 6,072,396, each entitled “Apparatus and Method For Continuous Electronic Monitoring and Tracking of Individuals”; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,103 entitled “Monitored Person Tracking System.” These devices generally disclose a portable monitoring device that is secured to each monitored person. The portable monitoring devices receive a signal from a satellite or other positioning means and transmit this and other information to a central location. A position reference or location of the monitored person is determined from the positioning means and this information is stored in a database for tracking the individual's exact position throughout each and every day. One main objective of these devices is to use the continuous tracking of the individual's exact location as evidence to support a possible legal proceeding against the individual should the individual commit an illegal act during their release.
While the above devices are useful for their intended purpose, they are not designed to monitor an individual's compliance with a schedule and/or treatment plan that has been implemented during the conditional release program to address that individual's particular problems.
Thus, there is a need and there has never been disclosed Applicant's unique method and apparatus for monitoring persons for compliance with the conditional release program from their court ordered confinement.